A rescue nurse in Pagadian City died in a vehicular accident while on duty on Sunday, February 2, something his co-workers and family are so proud about.
Jasper Alcala, an emergency service nurse in the Pagadian City Medical Center, died when the ambulance carrying a patient he was to bring to Cagayan de Oro City in Region 10 plunged into a roadside ravine in Barangay Dableston in Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Lanao del Norte.
“We give Jasper our sincerest salute. We are grateful to him. He did his job as a nurse, at the cost of his life. His commitment to saving the life of others, the life of his patient in that ambulance will never be forgotten,” the incumbent mayor of Pagadian City, Samuel Co, said on Monday, February 3.
Officials of the Sultan Naga Dimaporo Municipal Police Station told reporters on Monday that Alcala hugged the patient he was to bring to Cagayan de Oro City when the ambulance wiggled uncontrollably, swerved towards the side of the highway and fell some 40 meters down.
Passengers of the ambulance who survived the mishap have confirmed what Alcala had done, telling reporters that he even covered the head of the patient in his care with a pillow before the vehicle rolled over several times and landed upside down in the deep side of the highway.
Alcala succumbed to injuries he sustained in the accident, which left the ambulance driver and two others injured, now confined in a hospital.
Friends and relatives sounded off immensely on social media about what is for them Alcala’s act of heroism. (JFU, COTABATO CITY, FEB. 3, 2025)